Search results for "Multilingual"
showing 10 items of 229 documents
Translingual text mining for identification of language pair phenomena
2016
Translingual Text Mining (TTM) is an innovative technology of natural language processing for building multilingual parallel corpora, processing machine translation, contextual knowledge acquisition, information extraction, query profiling, language modeling, contextual word sensing, creating feature test sets and for variety of other purposes. The Keynote Lecture will discuss opportunities and challenges of this computational technology. In particular, the focus will be made on identification of language pair phenomena and their applications to building holistic language model which is a novel tool for processing machine translation, supporting professional translations, evaluation of tran…
The role of musical aptitude and language skills in preattentive duration processing in school-aged children
2009
We examined 10-12-year old elementary school children's ability to preattentively process sound durations in music and speech stimuli. In total, 40 children had either advanced foreign language production skills and higher musical aptitude or less advanced results in both musicality and linguistic tests. Event-related potential (ERP) recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN) show that the duration changes in musical sounds are more prominently and accurately processed than changes in speech sounds. Moreover, children with advanced pronunciation and musicality skills displayed enhanced MMNs to duration changes in both speech and musical sounds. Thus, our study provides further evidence for…
Is a specialised training of phonological awareness indicated in every preschool child?
2008
<i>Objective and Methods: </i>In a prospective study 218 preschool children were enrolled (stratified in 2 training programs, one specialized for phonologic awareness in order to prevent dyslexia, the other consisting in training of general perception) during the last year of kindergarten. After finishing the first grade 131 children were compared in their reading and writing abilities.<i> Results: </i>In the whole group only a slight difference was found between both training modalities concerning their writing abilities. However, children with a history of hearing loss, actual hearing loss or pathologic middle ear findings profited most from the specialized trainin…
Understanding developmental language disorder-The Helsinki longitudinal SLI study (HelSLI): A study protocol
2018
Background Developmental language disorder (DLD, also called specific language impairment, SLI) is a common developmental disorder comprising the largest disability group in pre-school-aged children. Approximately 7% of the population is expected to have developmental language difficulties. However, the specific etiological factors leading to DLD are not yet known and even the typical linguistic features appear to vary by language. We present here a project that investigates DLD at multiple levels of analysis and aims to make the reliable prediction and early identification of the difficulties possible. Following the multiple deficit model of developmental disorders, we investigate the DLD …
T-complex measures in bilingual Spanish-English and Turkish-German children and monolingual peers
2015
BackgroundLateral temporal neural measures (Na and T-complex Ta and Tb) of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) index maturation of auditory/speech processing. These measures are also sensitive to language experience in adults. This paper examined neural responses to a vowel sound at temporal electrodes in four- to five-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals and in five- to six-year-old Turkish-German bilinguals and German monolinguals. The goal was to determine whether obligatory AEPs at temporal electrode sites were modulated by language experience. Language experience was defined in terms of monolingual versus bilingual status as well as the amount and quality of the…
Computer game as a tool for training the identification of phonemic length.
2013
Computer-assisted training of Finnish phonemic length was conducted with 7-year-old Russian-speaking second-language learners of Finnish. Phonemic length plays a different role in these two languages. The training included game activities with two- and three-syllable word and pseudo-word minimal pairs with prototypical vowel durations. The lowest accuracy scores were recorded for two-syllable words. Accuracy scores were higher for the minimal pairs with larger rather than smaller differences in duration. Accuracy scores were lower for long duration than for short duration. The ability to identify quantity degree was generalized to stimuli used in the identification test in two of the childr…
Masked Translation Priming Effects With Highly Proficient Simultaneous Bilinguals
2010
One essential issue for models of bilingual memory organization is to what degree the representation from one of the languages is shared with the other language. In this study, we examine whether there is a symmetrical translation priming effect with highly proficient, simultaneous bilinguals. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment with cognate and noncognate translation equivalents. Results showed a significant masked translation priming effect for both cognates and noncognates, with a greater priming effect for cognates. Furthermore, the magnitude of the translation priming was similar in the two directions. Thus, highly fluent bilinguals do develop symmetrical between…
Bilingualism at the core of the brain. Structural differences between bilinguals and monolinguals revealed by subcortical shape analysis.
2015
Naturally acquiring a language shapes the human brain through a long-lasting learning and practice process. This is supported by previous studies showing that managing more than one language from early childhood has an impact on brain structure and function. However, to what extent bilingual individuals present neuroanatomical peculiarities at the subcortical level with respect to monolinguals is yet not well understood, despite the key role of subcortical gray matter for a number of language functions, including monitoring of speech production and language control — two processes especially solicited by bilinguals. Here we addressed this issue by performing a subcortical surface-based anal…
Vocabulary teaching strategies and conceptual representations of words in L2 in children: evidence with novice learners.
2008
Abstract A controversial issue in bilingual research is whether in the early stages of L2 learning, access to the conceptual system involves mediation of L1 lexical representations [Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 149–174] or a direct route from the L2 word [Altarriba, J., & Mathis, K. M. (1997). Conceptual and lexical development in second language acquisition. Journal of Memory and Language, 36, 550–568; Finkbeiner, M., & Nicol, J. (2003). Semantic category effects in second language word learning. Applied Psycholing…
Effects of bilingualism on white matter atrophy in mild cognitive impairment: a diffusion tensor imaging study
2020
Background and purpose Previous investigations show that bilinguals exhibit the first symptoms of dementia 4-5 years later than monolinguals. Therefore, bilingualism has been proposed as a cognitive reserve mechanism. Recent studies have advanced towards an understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying bilingualism's protection against dementia, but none of them deals with white matter (WM) diffusion. Methods In this study, the topic was investigated by measuring WM integrity in a sample of 35 bilinguals and 53 passive bilinguals with mild cognitive impairment. Results No significant differences were found between the groups in cognitive level, education, age or sex. However, bilinguals …